


The Right Thing To Do In The Wasteland

by ShamanOfHedon



Series: The Right Thing [4]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout - Fandom, Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Cross fandom, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 11:59:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5416088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShamanOfHedon/pseuds/ShamanOfHedon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The battle of Hoover Dam has just been won. But it's HOW the Courier defeated the Legion that has the NCR and the Brotherhood so terrified.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Right Thing To Do In The Wasteland

There were 15 well trained NCR Rangers and 20 fully armored Brotherhood of Steel paladins, all working together, all standing in a circle, weapons trained on a single small woman sitting calmly in a chair on the far wall of the room. She was quiet, smiling under her worn black rawhide hat, and by all appearances seemed very unimposing. But she was clearly seen as some kind of threat, and a serious one at that, because why else would NCR and Brotherhood ever be working together?

The woman was clearly fully aware of the normally less than civil relationship between the two factions, and was clearly amused by the fact that they were so frightened of little old her that they overcame their differences to work together so they could find and detain her. She took great amusement in occasionally waving her hand and laughing aloud as it made the nervous soldiers cock their silly little guns aqnd point them at her harder, as if it made any difference.

The woman in the chair had come to be, much to her dislike, famous across the Mohave. Most folks called her "The Courier". Almost no one knew her actual name, as she was a very private and standoffish person. She had only allowed a small handful of people to get close to her over the past 6 months, and had trusted only them with even so much as her name. She was waching bemusedly as one of those friends was desperately trying to talk her brotherhood comrades into standing down.

"Seriously Harden?" Veronica asked, her voice full of annoyed exasperation. "After EVERYTHING she's done for us, and the NCR, and for fuck's sake the entire goddamn Mojave? You're seriously trying to justify treating her like this?"

"I told you to stand down Veronica," Paladin Harden replied. "After what we saw at Hoover Dam she is clearly a threat to us all."

"So saving all our asses makes her a threat?" Veronica replied, getting right up in Harden's face. "Wiping out Ceasar's Legion and saving the entire 

Mojave makes her a threat? Busting her ass helping people for the past half a year helping people and doing good makes her a threat?"

"Having the technology to kill hundreds of men in an instant makes her a threat!" Harden screamed. "She hid it from us all! From us, from House, from the NCR, all of us! And she could use whatever it is she's hiding to wipe all of US out!"

"Are you really so paranoid of anyone but us having tech," Veronica asked, "that you'll turn on a friend in fear? She SAVED us!"

"Whatever tech she used to vapourize the Legion at Hoover Dam should be with us!" Harden shouted back. "Even the NCR agrees! They may not like us but they know we'd keep shit like that buried underground where no one could ever use it!"

"He's right," interjected Colonel Hsu. "I freely admit I have no love for the Brotherhood but they've always looked to keep the really scary shit out of circulation. Whatever it is the Courier has needs to be buried and forgotten."

"If I may interject?" the courier said, finally chiming in after more than 3 hours of this back and forth."

"Yes, why don't you let her talk?" Veronica said. Hsu and Harden looked at each other for a moment, then nodded quietly, not a one of them lowering their weapons.

"Silly stupid paranoid humans," the Courier began. "Always making assumptions, never willing to think outside the box, always so quick to turn on what they don't understand. So sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up and let me educate you. Oh and we won't be needing those."

With that, she waved her hand dismissively, and as chairs around the room suddenly moved of their own accord and abruptly hit everyone's legs from behind, dropping them involuntarily into a seated position, every gun and suit of power armor in the room instantly crumbled to dust. The soldiers were all stunned, and all stayed seated, in shock, and unable to process what they had just seen. Even Harden and Hsu were silent, and made no protest. 

Veronica just smiled and took a seat on an old couch near the Courier's chair, beside their friend Cass and their "pets" Rex and ED-E.

"Everyone comfy?" the courier asked. No one replied. "Good. Then let me tell you all a wonderful story about an idiot inventor and his son and their failed invention, and the wonderful forgotten thing you superstitious sheep call magic."

**********

It was the end of the 5th Era. Over a millennium had passed since Marie had ended the threat of Alduin, and founded her secret community of Ald'Jansa. She and her immortal daughter were in Black Marsh, on a rare trip to find new outcasts to invite to their community. It had been two centuries since their last trip off the isle, and they were woefully behind on current events, for they found themselves taken completely unaware by the war currently being fought in Black Marsh, between the Argonians and their ironic allies the Dunmer against the invading Nords. 

As was their nature, Marie and Svetla did the right thing, and stayed to help fight off the Nord invasion, helping the strange alliance drive out the racist invaders. And it was after the war ended that things would change forever.

As Marie and Svetla were helping their friends Walks-Like-Shadows and Darrigan, a married Dunmer and Argonian lesbian couple, on a hunting party to drive out the last few Nord stragglers, they were all mid-combat when a sphere of unfamiliar magic erupted beside them. After it dissipated, a pair of men in strange clothing were standing in it's place, gawking at them all in confusion. The Nord stragglers immediately charged the newcomers, screaming in bloodlust. Svetla and their friends charged the Nords in kind, while Marie leaped towards the newcomers and put up shields.

"Dad?" said the younger of the two men. "I'm pretty sure this isn't 2076. In fact I'm pretty fucking sure this isn't even Earth. Your stupid time machine borked on us!"

"Calm down Devlin," the older man said. "I'm checking the calculations!"

"Fix it like NOW Dad!" Devlin said. "Before Conan and company over there get past Godzilla and the Drow and roll a crit on us!"

"You know I don't understand any of your D&D crap son" the older man said. "just give me a minute to recalculate!"

"Will you two imbeciles shut up?" Marie shouted at them. "I'm trying to protect you and your babbling is a distraction!"

"Er..." Devlin sputtered. "Dad she speaks English. This is so messed up."

"We can be fascinated by her language skills later son," Dad replied. "For now stand close."

The older man pressed a button on the object that appeared with them, a strange metal box, and the odd light began to swirl around them again. The problem was it swirled around Marie as well, just as Svetla and the others finished dispatching the Nords. As Svetla turned to see her mother engulfed in the light, "Mother!" was all she could cry out before the two strange men vanished, and took Marie with them. All Svetla could do was fall to her knees and weep, fearing that after nearly 1500 years, death had finally caught up with Marie.

Another flash of light and the three were suddenly standing in a giant swamp, surrounded by mosquitoes the size of crows, with giant reptiles grazing on the nearby grasslands. They were clearly on Earth again, but still not in the year Devlin had hoped.

"Great," Devlin muttered. "Fucking Dinosaurs Dad. Goddamned motherfucking dinosaurs. We're STILL not in 2076. And we have a hitch-hiker."

"At least we're on Earth," Dad said irritatedly. "Just let me get the reset coordinates fixed and we'll be back home."

"And what about She-Ra over here?" Devlin asked.

"My name is Marie you idiot," Marie interjected, "and I insist you send ME home first."

"Young lady," Dad said, "it will be miracle enough if I just get my son and I home. If you come with us I can try to recreate the accident that took us to your world. I'm afraid that's the best I can..."

He was interrupted by a huge deafening roar, and all three looked up to see a T-Rex staring down at them. Dad clutched his chest, the shock too much, a heart attack knocking him to his back. Marie grunted in annoyance and charged the giant lizard. Devlin meanwhile hit the button on the device in a panic, and before Marie could do anything they were gone, leaving Marie standing over a dea dinosaur, stranded in Earth's past. Trembling with rage, Marie let out a scream that made the world shake.

Devlin and his father rematerialized in their laboratory, and the time machine shorted out, as the elder man gasped his final breaths. Devlin just sat there, in tears, squeezing his now dead father's hand. He then grabbed a sledgehammer and smashed the stupid contraption. It was only when he finished destroying it that he realized he wasn't alone. He turned towards the chair in the corner where his father did most of his work, ready to swing at the intruder, then stopped in utter confusion when he saw a white haired woman with a dead eye and a jagged scar, and slightly pointed ears, in a black duster and a faded black rawhide hat.

"You..." Devlin muttered. "How can it POSSIBLY be you?"

"That dear boy," Marie said, not looking up from the journal she was reading, "is a VERY long story."

"What... what are you?" Devlin asked.

"A very very old woman," Marie replied. "I've been waiting a few eons to catch up with you."

"How can you possibly still be alive and unaged?" Devlin asked. "We left you in the Cretaceous! You should have been dust 70 million years ago!"

"I don't die," she replied matter of factly. "I don't age. I stopped being human on my planet centuries before you and Professor Aldrin showed up. Interesting reading by the way."

Marie finally looked up, setting the journal down.

"I HAD hoped," Marie began, "that when you got back I might finally use the machine to go home. You've been gone 3 weeks here you see. I arrived just before you two left, waiting outside the door for you to vanish. Spent the last 3 weeks reading all of your father's notes and research. Fun thing about immortality you see. Plenty of free time to learn things. I figured out your trip wasn't magical after about a month, when I realized your planet had no natural magic. Figured out it had to be some sort of time travel in the 1800's when H.G. Wells was all the rage. Once the Roman Calendar became standard worldwide, I figured out that there had to be a reason you were aiming for a specific year. By the time tensions between the Yanks and the Chinese flared up, I pretty much predicted the cataclysm. Kept to myself as best I could the year after your target date, helping whomever I could, waiting out the fallout until humanity started emerging from the vaults."

"How... how did you find us?" Devlin asked.

"Easily enough," Marie replied. "The outer casing of your failed time machine was clearly made from whatever materials your father could find. And I remembered seeing the word Bremerton on one panel. Taken from a freeway sign I believe. Once Seattle came to be and the Bremerton area likewise, it became a simple matter of waiting for a scientist post-war to start tinkering with time travel around this area. I found your father 15 years ago. Watched you grow up in fact. Kept my distance, waiting for the day you two left on your botched trip. Been reading all his work while waiting for you to come back. I HAD hoped I could finally go home, but truthfully even if you hadn't smashed the device, there was no way it was ever going to work properly. It was a one in a million fluke that you two teleported a trillion miles across space to Nirn. The odds of recreating that trip with a faulty time machine are astronomical."

"So..." Devlin asked warily, "why are you still here?"

"To help you bury your father," she replied. "I knew he'd die within seconds of returning. At his age? That heart attack was going to be fatal no matter what. And to make certain you tell no one about your trip, or me."

"Who'd believe me anyway?" Devlin said, sighing sadly. "No one here thought Dad could ever succeed anyway. And if I tell them we brought back an immortal sorceress they'd probably shoot me as a jet junkie."

Marie nodded solemnly, and the two buried Devlin's father out back. Afterwards they destroyed all of Professor Aldrin's notes and research, to prevent anyone else ever recreating it.

"It WAS a noble idea," Marie said as they stood watching the notebooks burn. "Trying to go back before the war to stop it. But meddling with the past only screws up the future. And honestly you humans are too naturally self-destructive. The most you could have accomplished was postponing the inevitable."

"You're probably right," Devlin said sadly. "So what now? You waited 70 million years for us. What will you do now?"

"Go back to wandering the world," Marie replied. "Helping where I can. Staying off the world's radar otherwise. I'd rather you humans NOT know an actual immortal Goddess walks among you. There's generally only two ways that goes for me. Best thing about the apocalypse was that so many deities that were based on me have been completely forgotten."

"Well, good luck then," Devlin said quietly, and went inside to get good and drunk.

Marie watched him quietly til he was out of sight, then turned back to the small notebook fire. After it burnt out, she walked away into the night, wandering North America for 5 years until she found herself in the Mojave, working a quiet, unassuming job as a simple Courier, which was a perfectly 

fine way to keep to herself until a dull man in a bad suit lucked out and put a bullet in her head. When she woke up from that, she was understandably pissed off, and set out after him. In doing so, as she had so many times before, she got drawn into much larger events, and her cherished anonymity once again went the way of the DoDo.

*************

"So..." Paladin Harden asked, quietly, still fearful of Marie, "you're telling us... that what you did to the Legion wasn't done with any weapon or technology, but... with magic?"

"Yes in fact I am," Marie replied. "Although I'm certain you're struggling to believe that and need some convincing despite the fact that you're sitting there in your underwear."

Harden turned red, only just now realizing that he wasn't imagining his power armor really had crumbled to dust.

"Then..." Col. Hsu asked, "What exactly DID you do to them?"

"I was getting sick of watching you people dying around me," Marie replied. "The Legion had you outnumbered 7 to 1. Even with NCR and Brotherhood working together, and House's Securitron army under my control, there were too many of them. And too many of you were dying. I DESPISE slavers. And I'm compelled by my nature to do the right thing even if it screws me over. I could absolutely NOT allow the Legion a victory here. So I weighed the risk, and decided I had no choice. So I unleashed the power I normally bury so I can pass for human, and made every single Legionnaire boil alive from the inside. Then I vapourized whatever was left. Which was about when you lot started pointing guns at me and demanded I follow you all inside here to the Dam lobby."

No one spoke. Everyone was still stunned.

"In case you jackasses weren't paying attention," Cass said, "what that means is that she's basically God, and if she wanted you stupid fucks dead, you'd all BE dead, and she wouldn't even have to blink to do it, so maybe you all might take a step back and re-evaluate your designs on her."

"What she said," added Veronica.

Hsu and Holden began whispering amongst themselves whilst Marie scritched Rex's ears.

"What are we supposed to tell our superiors?" Hsu asked, both for Holden and himself.

"That you won," Marie replied. "And that's all anyone really needs to know."

"And what about you?" Holden asked.

"Me?" Marie said. "That's easy. I walk away and go on about my life. You can't kill me, and the only reason I'm in here now is because I was studying your behaviour and allowed you lot to bring me in here. But fun is fun, and I've had mine. So you're GOING to let us all go, and tell NO ONE what you saw me do. Forget I exist, and go on about rebuilding your world."

The half-naked military men looked at each other solemnly and agreed. Marie was kind enough to cause simple clothing to appear on everyone she'd stripped, and with her companions in tow, left without another word.

"So," Cass asked, "where to next?"

"Yeah," Veronica asked, "What's our plan now?"

"I don't know, Marie said, pondering as they walked. Then, with a smirk, Marie answered, "I heard a traveling merchant mention people vanishing as he passed through the remains of Boston back east. Perps might not be human. Maybe we ought to travel Northeast and help out."

"Why would we do that?" Cass asked.

"Because," Marie replied, "it's the right thing."

**Author's Note:**

> I was quite happy ending The Right Thing at a trilogy. I feel like it ended where it needed to. But a few friends have been badgering me to both do a Fallout fic AND to do more Marie/Right Thing stories. So I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. Hope you lot like it. I'll let feedback dictate if I do any more Marie Wasteland stories.


End file.
